


Destiny

by gozita2003



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 09:58:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14809121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gozita2003/pseuds/gozita2003
Summary: Rei hates destiny with a passion and will fight against it until she learns a thing or two about Minako and the things she faced in this so called destiny. Minako bites off more than she can chew. Ami shows her dark side. Makoto faces her own struggles against herself. And Usagi has to bear everything.





	1. Rei: I Quit

They had been at this for months. Much less the past six days had been going nonstop with fighting the youma. The closer they seemed to be getting to putting an end to it all, the worse life seemed to become. It was bad enough to be up at five in the morning to get ready and do chores about the shrine before a shower and then heading to class. Then it was suffering through her classes and the stares some of her classmates still gave her to this day. After that, it was more shrine work, followed by a night of fighting youma, and, if she was lucky, five hours of sleep.

So by day seven of this treatment, Hino Rei was done with it all. She had never asked for any of this to be bestowed upon her. She was never asked or given a choice if she wanted to take this path. Why did it all have to be so dictated? Was she so bound by this damned destiny that she couldn't determine the way her own life was meant to go?

Her eyes traced over to the girls sitting a bit away from her in the park. It was getting later into the day and they were all ready to go fight another battle this day, except for Rei. She had plans to sit right where she was or maybe go home and get her homework done early for once since this catastrophe started. They were all acting like nothing was wrong in the world, laughing it up. Were they not even taking the fights seriously when the world was supposed to be at risk?

Then she focused on Usagi and her eyes narrowed just the slightest bit. What right did she have to be this stupid princess that Rei was supposed to give her life for? She had already done it once at D-point and that had been so painful and awful. Rei would never admit to it, but she had visions reliving it and could feel the actual pain. And then she had been spared after that incident to live as a normal girl but Usagi had brought her back as Sailor Mars. She resented her for it. Her life had been hell enough growing up. She had enough death in her life.

Then right on cue, here came Luna and Artemis running up, dropping some spiel about how there's danger and they needed to move stat. The girls all got up and transformed, except for Rei. When they moved to leave, the realized Rei hadn't so much as stood up.

"Rei? What's wrong?" Ami was, of course, concerned that there was something wrong with her. She was perhaps the most innocent of the group.

"Nothing."

"Well c'mon. You heard the news, there's a youma a few blocks down." Makoto was trying to encourage her, but it wasn't going to work. Not today.

"I'm not going."

"Excuse me." This time it was Minako and that tone came across pretty harsh.

"Pretty sure I didn't fucking stutter." Rei turned her glare to Minako, getting one back in return.

"…You guys can handle this." Minako turned to look at the others, trying to send them on their way.  
"But…" Usagi looked between the two, clearly uncomfortable and aware it was going to be ugly. Rei had already had an issue with Minako being the leader despite being the last one to show up.

"Just go." Rei waved her hand and with some coaxing from Ami and Makoto, they left with Usagi.

"So just what the hell is your problem? What stick is up your ass that you're too high and mighty to help out the team?"

"What's the entire point of it all? We're all going to die one day, one way or another. That's clearly already happened. Outside of that, why should I go and die for someone so stupid that they can't take two steps out of the way of danger." Rei stood up, refusing to let Minako stand above her like she was in control of the conversation.

"Because that's your job. That was your job back in the Silver Millennium, and that's your damn job today. And you're going to do that job, whether you like it or not."

"I don't get PAID for this job. I didn't get asked if I even wanted this stupid job! My life is hectic enough without the need of constant fighting which mind you, can take us HOURS because none of you are coordinated enough to—"

"None of US? How about none of you! Do you realize how many times you've almost set someone else on fire? Or a building? Or how about a whole fucking forest!" Minako stepped forward, right into Rei's personal space, letting her transformation go. "None of you have the coordination you should have by this point! And you being a total dick like this is never going to get anyone there!"

"What the fuck do you know!? What makes you so righteous and know it all? As I recall it, I'm always the one having to step up and try and stop Usagi from dying! I did it at D-point TWICE! I did it back then too!" Rei shoved Minako back, her patience far beyond its limits.

"What do I know?" Minako grabbed Rei by her shirt and shoved her hard against a tree, earning a grunt as a responding sound. "I know what it's like to have to fight on your own. I know what it's like when thousands of lives are the ones at stake. I fought long before any of you even knew what the hell was going on in our world. I was around fighting these creatures by myself, in a foreign country, with no fucking help and a cat with bad advice guiding me. Lying to me."

"Good fucking job. You saved some lives just like we do. It doesn't matter if it's one person, or five in that case. You're down one so you can still do it with just four of you. I'm sick and tired of the fighting. My life is hellish enough without the constant worries of when I'll be home, how hurt someone is, or someone else dying. I've had enough death." Rei tried to shove Minako off, but lacked the strength to even fight that and had to grind her teeth. "Now let me go."

"No. You think YOU had enough death? Yes, I understand you lost your mother. I can respect that even. I feel for you. But you don't know anything about actual death."

"I was at her bed side when she died, you bitch!" That was enough to push Rei over the edge. She raised her fist and slammed it right into Minako's mouth, which made her let go and take two steps back. There was a small amount of guilt when Rei saw how she had split her lip open and the blood slide down her chin.

However, Minako raised her head just fine, returning her look with one that held so much pain. So much so that Rei had never seen it before. "I agreed that you lost her and that it was hard. But there's a distinct difference in the death you faced and the death I faced." She stepped forward right back into Rei's face and let her get a good look at her eyes. "The difference? Mine was murder."

Rei flinched at that and her brain had trouble processing the words. "What?"

"No one else seems to realize it, but Usagi is the ONLY one with the ability and power to heal people from youma back to normal beings. It's one thing when we're facing a fully-fledged, created youma. I didn't have Usagi in London, now did I?"

It takes a few minutes for two and two to come together and Rei's eyes widen. That had meant that Minako was…

"You killed them."

"What choice did I have? It was kill one person and save thousands…or kill every single one of them. I didn't know it at first. I saw the missing posters at school sometimes. Or the news reports with the families begging for their husband, wife, child, whoever to come home. It was much later I made the connection right before I came back to Japan as Sailor V. So yes, even here, I was having to remove people in order to make the world a safer place. So don't sit here…" Rei watched as Minako's eyes began to water up. "Don't sit here and tell me you know a fucking thing about death! About why you don't want to protect someone who can prevent anyone else from getting blood on their fucking hands and be expected to live a normal teenage life!"

Everything in Rei's world was suddenly tilted sideways. She thought she knew Minako, they had always been fairly close since the team came together, but this? This was unexpected. How many times had Minako made some randomly dumb joke or one liner to laugh when an uncomfortable situation came up? How much of a burden was she carrying that Rei didn't know about?

It was then Rei realized she had only really been thinking of herself. She wasn't the only one out fighting the youma every day. She wasn't the only one who had died at D-point and brought back. Usagi had tried to fight on her own before bringing them all back to fight with her. Then the other girls had lives too.

Ami was trying to become a doctor and was even managing a cram school alongside fighting the monsters. Makoto was living on her own, both her parents gone, but continued to fight on her own time when she wasn't with Ami. Even Usagi didn't seem to be complaining nearly as much about the fighting that had been occurring, just that she was tired. Then Minako…What did she actually know about her? She knew nothing of her parents, really. Minako never talked about her family. She never actually talked about London.

"Mina…"

"Just…don't. I don't need your stupid sympathy." Finally, Minako stepped back, wiping the blood off her mouth and her sleeve at her eyes to stop the tears from falling. "Pretend you didn't hear any of that. Forget it entirely."

"You expect me to just forget all of that?"

"Yes. That's an order."

Rei sagged against the tree, wincing a little. She had been entirely selfish and in the back of her mind she could almost hear her mother scolding her and had to shut her eyes to fight back the vision trying to force its way into her head. She was so tired of them. The more exhausted she was, the more they seemed to appear given she lacked a serious mental stability to keep a barrier up. It was getting hard to tell which were actual dangers and which were visions of past or present.

"Rei?"

Rei blinked, opening her eyes. When did she get on the ground?

"Thank god, you scared the hell out of me. One moment you're leaned against the tree and then you suddenly went down without warning. You were out for like ten solid minutes."

"What?" Rei blinked a few more times, trying to ignore the stars in her vision. Had she seriously blacked out?

"I managed to catch you before you cracked your head open on anything. What happened?" Minako appeared to be very concerned for her, which felt nice.

"I…I don't know." Rei brought her arm up over to cover her eyes for a minute. Suddenly Minako was yanking her arm away and pushing her sleeve up.

"What the fuck?"

Rei looked over and spotted the cut she had gotten in a fight two days ago on her upper arm that her sleeve had been able to hide until now and she cut her eyes away.

"What the hell happened? This should have healed over by now." Minako paused when she registered something else occurring. "Your back!" She fought with Rei before getting her moved enough to see a giant bruise on her back and god she'd just slammed her into a tree.

"Can you let me go now? This feels weird as hell…" Rei muttered, pulling herself free and her shirt back down.

"Why didn't you say something!? This is serious Rei!"

"Because I already knew what was causing it and it was stupid to say anything because it was going to create a whole situation I didn't want to deal with."

"So what happened?"

"…I didn't want to be a senshi anymore, so my body adapted to that train of thought. When your body adapts, well, you lose those healing powers too." Rei couldn't make eye contact at this point. She'd just admitted she had quit being a senshi at least three days ago.

"Rei…" Minako's voice was so sad and that made it harder to not look at her. "Why..why couldn't you just talk to me about this instead of letting it escalate to what it did today?"

"Yeah. That would have gone just as well. 'By the way, I'm done being a senshi by have a nice life.' C'mon Mina. It already sounds stupid as is. I expected you to ditch me here after I gave up my duties and to never speak to me again."

"You..You think I'd stop talking to you?"

"Well yeah. Disregarding duty pretty much bans me—" Suddenly Minako's hand was over her mouth and she looked up at her finally.

"That doesn't make you not a friend, Rei. Sure. I'd still call you a traitor for betraying the Princess and your duty, but you're still a friend. None of us deserve the lives we had before we met. I'm not stupid, I watched you all for a while. I watched people make fun of you at school and the temple and everything."

"You fucking stalked me!?" Rei turned red in the face from embarrassment at that. What else did she know? "What else do you know about me you shouldn't know?"

"Nothing I haven't learned since I grouped up with you guys. I was only watching for a few short minutes over a few days. That's it. Then it was onto the next person. I had to know what I was dealing with as a person, not just a scout, before we worked together. What connected us all."

Sighing, Rei finally sat up, wincing at the pain in her back. Damn, how hard had Mina slammed her into the tree. "Don't you have a fight to be at?"

"They finished while you were blacked out. They swung by, but I told them you were just exhausted and fell asleep is all. They don't know anything. I'm not…" There was a pause as she searched for the proper words. "I don't like to spill secrets…"

Rei was silent for several long moments, mulling over what she had learned for the day. "Because of Sailor V."

"Partially. And if you tell anyone that, I swear to god I will make your life an actual living hell. I have enough guilt with it I don't need others looking at me different like you will."

"Excuse me?" Rei snapped her head to look at Minako. She knew she had murdered all those people that were youma, but it was as Minako had said. It was one or it was all. Then she thought on it a touch longer. Most people would have seen that as a different person and distanced themselves from the so-called murderer.

"Just…forget it." Minako sighed and stood up, looking away. "If…If you don't want to be a scout, then fine. I'm not going to ban you or anything like that or take your transformation stick or your communicator. I can't deny you what you want. We won't be able to tell you anything from here on out about any missions, any dangers, anything. I don't expect you to tell me about any visions you have either."

"Just like that?"

"Yeah. Congratulations, you're now just Hino Rei. Priestess as the Hikawa Shrine and school girl at the TA all-girls school Christian Private Academy." The words lacked any luster. It was cut clear that Minako didn't like how they tasted in her mouth.

Rei didn't like how they tasted either when she mulled them over in her head. She would remain friends, but they would have to act differently around her. Move their meetings somewhere else that wasn't the shrine. Less study sessions. Rei would continue to have her visions regardless. She looked down at her hands and frowned. Deep down, Mars was an actual part of her. Not just in a way that she fought as Mars, but in a way, that made them one in the same person with two different personalities. She had flash backs of the Silver Millennium and had seen how much harsher that Mars had been. Cold. Calculated. Unless she was around…

Ah fuck. Any time she was around Minako it was what always changed plans. Then and now. She was the right-hand man, the second in command should something happen. No one else on the team could really fill that role properly. Perhaps Ami at most, but she was their tactician. Makoto believed too much in going in with the guns blazing. And Usagi was the Princess herself.

"Mina."

"Hm?"

"…I'm rather selfish, aren't I?"

"No. I don't think so. Why do you say that?" Minako moved to sit back down next to her. She could tell Rei was having a struggle with having this kind of personal conversation. Attachment was very hard for Rei after her Mother's death.

"…You actually killed people and still kept going. Ami finds time to fit in a cram school with everything else. Makoto manages on her own which has to be lonely at times. Usagi deals with being this princess that's a fix it all."

"Yeah so? Rei, you have your own fit too, that doesn't make you selfish, wanting to quit. Stupid yeah. But I know what your schedule is like, and I know this has been really pushing you into your limits. I realized it three days again when you fell asleep at an actual study session."

"You noticed that!?" Rei was mortified. She never fell asleep at a session, but had succeeded in doing it with what she thought was no one noticing.

"Yeah. But you didn't realize that for the past three days, your morning chores were less. I got up SUPER early to go to the shrine to sweep the stairs and clean the stuff up from over night."

To say Rei was dumbfounded would be the understatement of the century. Minako didn't do early mornings. And if she was up before Rei…now that she mentioned it, she did remark yesterday about how few leaves were out and she had gained an extra thirty minutes of sleeping in over it.

"…Why…I don't…"

"Because I notice things and as a leader, it's my duty to help out. God it fucking sucks being up before the sun to do some chores, but it helps. Then Usually after the fights I convince Ami to go with Makoto for buddy time and so Makoto can get in extra studying while Ami also studies. Usagi just goes with Mamoru out for food most times."

"But that doesn't do anything for you…"

"It doesn't have to. Just helping my team out is enough. But that also means I need you guys to talk to me when something is wrong or bothering you. I want situations fixed before they reach a level like today did. I'd have told you to take a day or two off from the fights and catch back up with no problem. If it was a serious issue, we would have contacted you."

Guilt was an emotion Rei was quickly becoming acquainted with today and she was not enjoying it. Speaking to others was something very hard for her with how closed off she was with everyone in her life up until this point.

"At D-point."

"D-Point?" Minako raised her eye brows at Rei with the sudden topic change.

"Mm. I was the last one left standing to protect Usagi. We all sort of knew we were going to die that day, just not how. Every time one of you went down, it was harder for me to go on too. Especially after you went down so quickly. So when it came to knowing two of the DD girls were still alive, I knew I was going to have to fight with everything I had and more." Rei leaned back against the tree, looking down at her shoes. "The second fire soul I did took more than what I had and it was painful. I could actually uhm…I could feel everything in my body dying and failing. I don't really remember what I said to Usagi. I don't remember closing my eyes. Just all the pain."

"Christ, Rei…"

"So I thought, was it worth feeling that intense pain again for Usagi? Some dimwit idiot who can't get a grasp on you can't fix everything by talking. Because that's what she always tries to do and it never works. I always try to count how long this life has left. I wonder will I be brought back this next time. Usagi had to reset the entire world backwards for us to come back. And even then we weren't spared. It makes me wonder if I even quit, would it stop anything from happening."

"You mean destiny, don't you?" Minako frowned. She knew it was a word Rei had hated for a long time.

"Yeah. How predetermined are our own lives? What choices do we make that are our own and not one dictated by this path we're set to follow? If destiny determined we were all due to die with these battles, would I still die too? Would it be the same way? Would it be as Mars or as Rei? Would I even come back if I ignored it all?"

"Hey…Rei."

"Hm?" Rei tilted her head to look at Minako. They both were apparently pretty tired.

"I'd be sad if you didn't come back…I uh…" Suddenly Minako was red in the face and that served to confuse Rei. "I really like you."

"I mean, I like you too Mina."

"No I uhm…I REALLY like you. Like like you."

After the two seconds it took for the words to register, Rei was redder than Minako was. "I'm sorry, what?"

"So if you quit, I'd have to stop doing that because I can't be with someone that doesn't understand my disappearing all the time or coming home beat up. Or just being gone one day and back the next week, you know?"

Rei chocked on her words. "Are you asking me out!?"

"Yeah." Minako shrugged and gave her a thousand watt smile.

Immediately, Rei smacked her on the shoulder and stood up. "Can you try again when we AREN'T discussing life and death as senshi!?"

"So that's not a no!" Minako grinned up at her.

"I didn't say yes either. God, go home Minako! It's late." Turning, Rei took off towards the Shrine, her heart hammering in her chest. She knew she liked Minako, had feelings that were more than friendship there, but god Minako was returning them? Suddenly the girl was beside her. "I said go home."

"Except it's supposed to be a sleepover at the shrine tonight with the girls! They're already there." Minako linked her arms with Rei, who groaned. "Don't worry, you don't have to answer now or today or this century. Or you can say no, Rei. Nothing dictates your choice in this one but you."

"Can you at least give me a week here? I'm hella tired, I'm hungry, and I hurt."

"One of those is on you. But sure. Now, to the shrine!"

With that, Minako pulled Rei towards it, rambling on about anything and everything. Rei realized she never officially said she had rejoined the scouts, but she had never quit either. Only Minako could convince her to stay about like this and she couldn't stop the small smile on her face. Just once, it was nice to feel the need to be around someone because they wanted you there for who you were. Not because you had some sixth sense. Not because you could have visions. And not because you were good at archery. Only Aino Minako could ever make someone feel that way.

One week to answer. One week to determine her own destiny this time. Maybe all of destiny wasn't so bad after all.


	2. Minako: Unleashing Hell

Minako had to grind her teeth in frustration. In anger. In worry. Fear. Torment. She had really fucked this one up. Sure, in the past, she had given orders that had gone awry, but things always ended up working out just fuckin' fine. Tonight, one of her own was down with bad injuries, Ami looking her over. To make it worse, it was Rei. And to add to that fuckin great fireball growing, the battle was ongoing and it was her, Makoto, and Usagi only.

This shouldn't have been that hard. It wasn't supposed to be so hard. A simple youma, a stray that appeared from time to time. Except it was harder to predict one that had insane speed like this did and a lot of firepower. The task was simple. Rei was to draw fire while Ami did her usual scan. Makoto was back up until a plan was in place, and Minako protected Usagi. Standard procedure for the team. It was what they had been doing for two years now. Or was it three? Minako couldn't keep track with all her years as Sailor V.

Instead, Rei had taken in three times the attacks than had been predicted. And had wound up sent through solid concrete and almost demolishing a building. The good news? They were in a construction area that was taking down everything in the area as it were. The bad news? Rei was trapped under a lot of debris and when Ami had finally gotten to where she could scan her, all she could say was that the situation was 'bad.'

She took a deep breath as she eyed the youma who was smirking right fucking at her. You wanted to play firepower? Fine, two could play at this fucking game in that case. She raised her finger to her forehead and took a deep breath in, preparing to expend a lot of energy for the sake of finishing this. She was pissed off for more than one reason.

"Crescent Beam Shower!" The words came, the arm extended out, and she focused on the enemy. Only nothing happened and Minako, for the first time since London, faltered. The youma saw a chance and launched straight for her and she couldn't move. She was frozen on the spot. Her powers had just entirely failed her. The powers given to her that were meant to protect had just… did not work.

When she blinked, Makoto had managed to smash it in the face with a Supreme Thunder and removed it. In the same instance, Minako's transformation had come undone. Not only had her attack just failed her, but her powers just up and untransformed her? Oh what the actual fuck.

"Minako?" Makoto was looking at her, expecting something, anything.

"We need to check on Rei. Play clean up. Make sure no one saw anything. Short circuit any cameras you see. Usagi, go check on Rei." It was hard to give commands given her last one had caused such an injury. They were still staring at her. "GO!" With the command behind that voice, they both took off.

Minako looked down at her hand again and frowned. And then she had to shut her eyes. She was seeing that red again. The love of her life was hurt and she had failed to execute any task properly tonight. She might as well go back to London to murder people-no. She had to stop that train of thought. The last time she went down that very dark road, she almost didn't make it back.

Finally moving, she left over to where Rei was at. Thankfully she wasn't buried ass deep in debris this time. Bad news? Still unconscious. Worse news? She was sure things were broken and there was internal bleeding. "Damage control. Makoto."

"No cameras. No one was around either. All the workers were already off when the fight started. Only damages were here it seems like outside of some outside, but it looks like regular construction demolition work." Makoto watched Minako with a close eye.

"Usagi?"

"It was just a youma...nothing human about it. Makoto demolished it, but it didn't manage to infect anyone."

Minako took a deep breath at the last one. "Ami?"

"Three broken ribs, dislocated leg, punctured lung, possible head trauma. L4 damage. Transformation was probably undone within three minutes of initial impact. Healing time, a week max. Minimum three days. Bed rest required." It was analytical, that was Ami. But there was something so straight-forward and cold about it, that it just irritated Minako more. One of her own, laid out, and that was how she phrased it?

"What the everloving fuck is wrong with you?"

The room screeched to a halt and everyone turned to look at Minako like she was a stranger at a party in a place she didn't belong.

"...Minako?" Makoto was the one to speak up this time.

"Don't even pull that bullshit. Rei is laid out on the ground, lucky to be alive, and that's how you want to give an analysis? Not a drop of fuckin' sympathy for Rei?"

"Hey!" This time Makoto stepped between Minako and Ami. "What the hell is your issue? You asked for damage reports, and Ami gave hers. The same way she has always given it."

"Yeah, cold as the icy bitch she is."

Makoto took real offense to that one and returned the fire back. "Maybe Rei wouldn't be laid out on the damn ground if you'd have taken two more seconds to analyze things, or for once, let Ami actually scan something!"

Reaching back, Minako went to swing straight into Makoto's face. Except she was Aino Minako. Facing Sailor Jupiter. The swing was easily stopped and lowered. For someone who usually went head first into fights, she hadn't expected that.

"You need to chill the fuck out." Makoto shoved her back. "Whatever is bothering you is clearly impacting more than just your thought process."

"What the fuck does that mean?"

"You couldn't even launch a single Crescent Beam. Your transformation came undone."

That was like a punch to the gut and Minako looked away, ashamed. Some leader she was. "Whatever. Finish up here." Turning, Minako left without a word. She couldn't handle being there. Couldn't handle Rei waking up. She knew Rei would be disappointed in her.

Instead, she opted for the stairs at her parents house. Her house. What the fuck ever, it didn't matter. She was sure she wasn't going to sleep there tonight, probably a hotel instead. Rubbing her hands on her jeans to get some feeling into them, she stared at the ground. What right did she have as anyone's leader? She was a murderer. Hell, she had almost killed Rei tonight. D-Point had killed the girls too.

Now? Now she was older, should have known better. Knew to have more patience, let Ami do what she needed to. Test waters. Not just send Hino Rei out as a distraction to get seriously hurt. Great, tears were coming on. Royal fuck up Aino Minako couldn't even perform as Sailor Venus tonight.

Letting out an aggravated noise, she slammed her hand down onto the stairs and welcomed the extreme pain in her hand. She was pretty sure she had fractured something. So much for quick counts for a few days. Home wasn't the place to be either. Forcing herself up, Minako left and went into a hidden alcove not too far away. Instead, she full forced punched the wall there, letting out an agonizing scream. Not because of the physical pain, but the mental pain. Reaching back, she did it again.

Who the fuck screwed up this badly? Injured Rei? Check. Went off of her team? Check. Disappeared? Check. Maybe sleeping here tonight wouldn't be too bad, if the temperature didn't dip too much more.

"Stop."

Minako jolted at the voice and whirled around to see Rei hobbling towards her. Ami's words echoed in her skull of every injury she had caused. By all means, Rei was supposed to be back at the shrine, not taking her hand to look at how scratched up and bloody it was. "Go home, Rei. You're hurt."

"So are you."

Minako scoffed. "Hardly."

"Maybe hardly physically. Mentally."

Leave it to Hino Rei to call her out. She didn't have to answer to anyone. She was the leader-oh. Right. She wasn't a very good one of those.

"Mina, talk to me here, please. Something is going on and you sitting here all broody about it, isn't going to help. The girls are worried. I had to assure them I'd talk to you and get it fixed so they wouldn't come here." Rei gently pulled Minako to sit down. Standing was incredibly painful, but she was too worried about her girlfriend to not come.

"Usagi just talks. Like you said. She's too stupid to move out of the way of something clearly headed at her and we have to compensate for that. It's less so now and days, but it's there. Love doesn't heal everything. Love doesn't fucking exist for everything. I can't even analyze her into a combat situation because she's not good at combat. She's not good for analyzing a single fucking thing either. She literally exists to do what I couldn't fucking do! What right does she have to get that ability over any of us!?"

Rei seemed to take a carefully deep breath in. Rei had once said very similar words, though less deep, less cut throat. "She's the princess. That's the right she has over any of us. Our job, now and then, was to protect her. Whether we liked it then...or even now, it's what duty binds us to. Destiny, if you will." What a way to shoot Minako's own words back at her. "What else?"

Minako looked away and at the ground, wanting to punch the wall again. "Makoto goes into everything head first like that's going to solve a single damn thing, which tends to result in more issues than we had to begin with. Not to mention that no, fighting isn't always the solution either. But she just gung-ho's all up in there like that's the answer! And she still can't properly control her levels of strength! The amount of damage we've caused because of her recklessness. Or the amount of times she has caused a damn black out because she can't keep her powers properly contained in a fight!"

"Do you realize how hard it is to control a free flowing power? I deal with fire power all the time. It's not as easy as it seems. I'll admit, Makoto can be very reckless. But she's wised up. She hardly rushes into a fight anymore. She runs on pure adrenaline, but you haven't talked to her about this. Or worked on her with this. It's really hard to fix something, if you don't point it out. Next? Cold, icy bitch Ami, I believe is how I was told you said it?"

"Ugh, why even go there?" Minako scowled a little, clenching her hand and welcoming the intense pain. "Any time one of us are injured, she lists it off like a fuckin' robot. It's sickening. She doesn't sound concerned or worried at all. Sometimes I wonder what goes on in her twisted little mind. You can't tell me you don't think she's just the smallest bit fucked up. Quiet ones are the deadly ones. I bet she could kill us all in our sleep."

"Now you're just being unreasonable." Rei rolled her eyes. "Ami gives her data that way because it's the way a doctor does it. It's what she's been living with since childhood. It's what she's studying. Now what about me?"

"You got yours already back when we got into it."

"Yeah, but I didn't mean what did you think I sucked at. I meant what about tonight got to you? Love came before duty."

"It did not."

"It did. I'm aware it did. You sent me into a fight to take cover fire. And things went a bit...off plan. No one could have planned for what happened tonight. Not even Ami. It was one fight out of many that didn't go like you expected." Rei paused, trying to get an answer. Silence was her return. "You thought you'd fucked up as leader. And…" Still, she tried again and Rei gave a heavy sigh. "You thought of London."

Nail, meet coffin. Rei was dead on point and Minako stiffened up.

"Except I'm not someone you've seen in passing. I'm someone you know very closely. You couldn't concentrate right." Rei leaned back, looking up at the moon, letting Minako mull over it.

"It...wasn't love before duty. It wasn't that. I made a call that almost killed you. Could have killed any one of you. And it's not the first time. My call at D-point got us all killed. I don't deserve to be leader. For fucks sake, I'm a murderer."

"Stop." Rei gently uncurled Minako's injured hand, taking out a roll of bandages. She guessed Ami gave them to her. She was tender and caring, wrapping her hand up. "You think you just became leader so easily? Remember when you first joined? We both really got into it. I had asked what right you had as a leader."

Minako remembered that night very well. It had almost gotten violent between the two of them until the others had gotten involved to put a stop to it. "I said you weren't good enough to be the leader. You lacked the skill and tactical thought behind anything and you would rush everyone in head first, getting them injured or worse, killed."

"I was so mad when you said that. But you were right. Minako, I know you're not nearly as dumb as you pretend to be. Making bad jokes? Messing up simple phrases and sayings? You spent a year in London in a University and came out with high grades while fighting youma. I've seen you count math problems in seconds that have ten or more numbers. And not small ones."

The fact that Rei had paid that much attention to her was very sweet. Minako knew she put a front up constantly, for more than one reason though. Math was a subject she was intense at. Enough to give Ami a run for her money with some things in it. Maybe not quadratic formulas, but probabilities? Ami often came to her for that kind of information because Minako put things into practice whereas Ami could only come up with an idea.

"So what? I can count, great. So can any sixth grader."

"Because you can calculate how many each of us needs to remove. Lower numbers for Usagi, Ami provides cover and back up for danger situations, while the rest of us take on a chunk. Anyways, math isn't my point here. The point is, you can think of situations quickly and logically, better than any of us."

"Rei, I almost got you killed tonight. By all means, you shouldn't have even walked here. Damage to your L4? Dislocated leg?"

"Ami fixed the last one, thank you. And Makoto carried me over here before I made them shoo. They didn't need to know all this. They just want to know if you're okay. Yes, there are going to be fights and days, where someone is really hurt. Because we can't predict every single possibility. The longer we wait to take care of a fight, the more risk the public is in. I remember something you said to me, when I got all pissed off and wanted to quit."

"What?"

"...The life of one or the life of thousands. We might come out really badly beat up sometimes, but we live. Through sheer determination and will. Or through Usagi sometimes, honestly. But it's us, or everyone."

The words hit a little too close to home and Minako had to look away, fighting back the tears. She hated those words. Hated them when she realized what she was doing. Now was no different. It was one thing when she didn't really know the victims in London. Here? Here she was close to the girls.

"Minako, it's not easy. None of this is easy. That's why I hate it too. That's why I wanted to quit. If something were to happen to me, Grandpa would have lost his daughter and his granddaughter. That's a very painful thought to me. But it's not meant to be easy either. We're out there saving the world. Sometimes just Juuban, sometimes Japan. But in the long run, the entire world. Billions of lives. People with dreams just like us."

Minako took in a deep, shaky breath. "We don't get dreams, Rei. We get illusions that we call dreams that we can't ever have. Our duty doesn't permit dreams."

"No." The word was harsh and made Minako look over at Rei. A determined look if she ever saw one. "Duty doesn't stop that. The only thing that stops that is us. Ami is still working her ass off, day in and day out, to be a doctor. Usagi is trying hard to balance school along with all of this. I still work daily as a shrine maiden, being up at ungodly hours just to stay up late for fights. That doesn't mean you have to quit your dreams. If you want to be an idol, then dammit, be an idol."

To say she was startled by the words, would be putting it lightly. Minako was positive that Rei didn't believe in dreams. Except something stood out to her.

"You...Rei you didn't give a dream in that. Sure you didn't for Usagi, but we all know that has to do with Mamoru."

"Because mine is very private. Though in a way, I mentioned it in the long run, I suppose."

Minako mulled over it, trying to pinpoint exactly what Rei had said that gave it away and came up with nothing, resulting in a frown. "I don't get it."

Rei let out a sigh and leaned into Minako. The poor girl must have been exhausted at this point. "Promise you won't spill?"

"I promise."

"...To make all of your dreams to come real. All of you. I don't have a dream of my own. My future is set at the shrine, right now. Until Crystal Tokyo and all that goes down. So I figured I'd make my dream making everyone else's dreams come true."

Want to talk about feeling like you got a cavity from how sweet that sounded. No wonder Rei got all defensive when Minako said dreams weren't real. Rei really believed in her dream of being this world wide idol.

"You know…" Minako started and smiled a little, the first time tonight. "If I became an idol, millions of other people would see me. And not just singing. In magazines too. Maybe in bathing suits." She could feel Rei stiffen up a little at that before relaxing.

"Yeah. And I'd be the only one to see you with nothing on, now wouldn't I?"

Minako busted out laughing at that one. It felt good, to laugh. After all the stress of the night, the tension finally eased out of her shoulders and the exhaustion started to set in. As did the cold and she shivered. Suddenly there was a light in front of her and warmth. Rei had a little fire in her hand.

"Cold?"

"It's not fair you can do that, you know."

"I can stop, if you'd like."

"No. I like it. I meant that you can freely control your power so willingly. Well..maybe not control it, but call it to you like that. I know you can't really control fire and all. I got nothing. Even Makoto got that thing going where she can statically shock people. And Ami can make well...ice daggers. I'm just plain old Aino Minako."

"Can't be controlled?" Rei put the fire out and pulled away to look at Minako. "You see, you're wrong there. You do have something. Pretty sure you control this little firecracker here." Rei gave her a grin as she pointed to herself. Minako had to laugh again.

"...Rei?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I stay at the shrine tonight? Maybe tomorrow too?"

"Of course. I wasn't really going to give you an option about that one. It's cold for one. And honestly, I don't want to be alone tonight either. It was scary for me too."

Minako frowned a little at that. "I'm sorry."

"I'm alive and I'll be okay. Someone has to be around to make sure I stay on bed rest. Which means in return for all this tragedy today, you get to wake up at 4am to do shrine chores."

"What!?"

"Fair is fair." Rei grinned as she slowly stood up.

"How are you going to walk back to the shrine like that?"

"Honestly? I was hoping you'd give me a ride on your back. I can keep you warm on the walk in return." Rei gave her a small smile. She hadn't thought this all the way through.

"I guess that's why I'm leader and not you. You didn't think this through by sending the girls off? Not even asking Usagi to bring Mamoru's car about?"

"No. You're leader because we all trust you and the choices you make. So squat down so I can climb onto your back and we can go home. I'll text the others and let them know all is okay. You can face that in a day or two with your apologies. Give you time to think." Rei moved onto her back, when Minako bent down. Thankfully she had no issues standing back up, due to the whole being a senshi thing.

"I suppose this is why you're second in command. For when I falter like today. Thank you, Rei. I really mean that."

"Of course. You can make it up to me when I don't feel like I'm dying a little."

"In bed, or out of bed."

Rei made some noise. Minako wasn't sure if she was slightly offended by the joke like she could be at times. "Both."

Well, both it would be. Destiny damned, things would be okay again.


End file.
